The inflation debate and The inflation conundrum (tags)
If inflation is the result of a distributional conflict, it can be deliberately stopped by governments. Governments could skim off the higher profits through a tax in order to subsidize energy costs for consumers. Governments could also raise taxes (on the rich).
Raising interest rates to fight inflation is a crazy idea (tags)
A wrong analysis of the causes of inflation leads to wrong countermeasures. Wage restraint means a loss of purchasing power and does not change the increased energy prices. Higher interest rates will make loans more expensive, lead to less investment, eg renewable energies.
Power, Profit and Prestige (tags)
The United States was also constantly at war, after independence, with Native Americans. The U.S. armed forces engaged in a thousand military operations, large and small, against Native Americans between 1868 and 1890!
Top Economist: As Pandemic Recedes, a Chance to Rethink Unemployment (tags)
The Chamber of Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have jumped on board with this idea.
Why Karl Polanyi Still Matters (tags)
In The Great Transformation (1944), Karl Polanyi explains why the economy must be embedded in society and society must not be embedded in the economy. He describes land, labor and money as "fictitious commodities" since they cannot be multiplied and created on the market.
Post-democratic Capitalism (tags)
The fact that money can buy political influence is a central problem for democracy. All citizens are equal in terms of their voting rights, but not in terms of their wealth - this is one of the great unsolved challenges of liberal systems of government.
The new normality is characterized by fear, social distancing and increasing state control. Many fear that the current situation could become permanent and that our liberal democratic legal system could be transformed into a dictatorial system of injustice.
End of a Career. Obituary The "Swabian housewife" (tags)
The "Swabian housewife" dominated politics. Now she was buried by her inventor. The state is not a business or a housewife but can borrow and become indebted to help present and future generations. System change, not climate change! Fight ignorance, not immigrants!
Corona and the collapse of modernization (tags)
Corona is the trigger but not the cause of the worsening crisis situation. It will accelerate the disintegration of capitalism. Pragmatism and cooperation on an international scale are called for. Infrastructure socialism takes health care from the market and insists on the common good
"We do not live in capitalism" (tags)
After the transition to Atlantic turbo-capitgalism, little can be recognized from the earlier times of the initiatives of the social market economy. In this situation, the counter-factual and fact-immune creed of all conservatives is enmeshed in a deep unconsciousness about the world.
On the Power of Money: Three by Eugen Drewermann (tags)
Only faith (as in a religion), the "invisible hand," the "law" of the "free" market can judge everything. State interventions can only be annoying. The market itself is allegedly "social". Everyone acts according to his advantage. The system is not social but criminal and unjust.
How Misguided Financial Policy Strengthens the Right-Wing (tags)
Capitalism has shown how democratic processes can be easily evaded. The Chicago boys carried out their radical reform program that was known as shock therapy. This included dismantling social state structures, opening the market to foreign investors and shattering unions
The Social State in the Age of Global Capitalism (tags)
Welcome to techno-corporate feudalism-where the richest three Americans have more wealth than 160 million, where the wealthiest 86 have more wealth than 3.6 billion, where the foul-mouthed cancelled free school lunches for 1 million and where market distortions rule.
From Enlightenment to Counter-Enlightenment (tags)
Brilliant minds elevated "the market" into a "higher being" of the post-modern age to which we must submit. The primacy of the market replaced the primacy of politics. Dr. Schulmeister is an economic researcher in Vienna whose latest book is "The Road to Prosperity" (2019).
Neoliberalism and Authoritarianism - A Symbiotic Pair (tags)
Rightwing populist parties mix the conventional rightwing authoritarian political style with neoliberal economic ideas emphasizing the free unregulated market and the sleek but strong state. For Hayek, unions allegedly threaten democracy and force a just redistribution policy.
Neoliberalism or New Freedom for Corporations (tags)
"The interests of merchants always differ from public interests. As a rule, they are interested in deceiving and misusing the general public" (Adam Smith). Keynes established that the market alone cannot ensure the prosperity of everyone.
Tax Reform in the US: Trump's Attack on America (tags)
The tax reform of the Republicans is a blow against the welfare state and was prepared in the 1970s. The tax reform is profitable for Donald Trump but could cost the Republicans a re-election. $5 trillion goes to households with more than a million dollars income.
Is Economic Speculation a Form of Structural Violence? (tags)
According to neoclassical economic theory, the financial markets return to equilibrium. Problems only occur because of state intervention. The roaring twenties led to an enormous stock euphoria. In 2018, companies inflate their stocks in a $70 billion stock buy back program.
The President as Businessman (tags)
Trump's gigantic tax cuts will only benefit the rich. Revenue losses of six trillion dollars are expected for the first decade after the Trumpian tax cuts start. Trump sells the illusion that the old order can be restored.
Neoliberal Crisis Policy has Failed (tags)
The term "invisible hand of the market" goes back to Adam Smith. This assumes all economic activity promotes the common good. Neoliberalism's survival is surprising because its theoretical assumptions are dubious. People cling to neoliberal prescriptions against reality.
The Totalitarianism of the Market (tags)
Neoliberalism demands reeducation for its implementation like command socialism. The neoliberal view of the person is exemplified by the figure of the Homo Oeconomicus and is the antipole of the socialist person. All persons are entrepreneurs of themseves.
Capitalism as a Religion (tags)
"Capital is the only god that the whole world knows, sees, touches, smells, tastes and excites all our senses. It is the only god that doesn't encounter any atheists" (Paul Lafargue's little known genial satire "Religion of Capital" from 1887.
Why are the Lambs Silent? (tags)
Techniques-fragmentation and propaganda- make serious violations of moral norms by the ruling elites morally and cognitively invisible to the population. With many examples, professor Mausfeld gives insight in the management of our democracy and how people are kept in apathy.
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
Casino Capitalism and Profit Maximization (tags)
In the 1960s the average holding time for stocks was 10 years. Now the holding time is not 9 months but 22 seconds. Like shareholder value, profit maximization leads to exploding inequality and the waste of resources. States are weakened by tax cuts.
For 40 years, the Bremen study group has published memorandums. The council of experts promoted the profits of businesses, not aggregate economic demand. Mass unemployment surpassed the 5 million mark because of neoliberal structural reforms.
Economists for $15 minimum wage (tags)
Wages in the US have been stagnant for 35 years. Milton Friedman and conservative trickle-down neoliberal economists have long dominated mainstream economics. Productivity and profits have soared while investments and wages have been stagnant.
From the Free Economy to the Share Economy (tags)
n 1970 the economics Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman argued the social responsibility of business was only maximization of its profits. This is not true any more today. The responsibility of businesses goes beyond profit maximization. More can be demanded of those with power/
Free collection of articles.
Homo Economicus and Dethronement of the Profit Principle (tags)
Max Frisch summarized economism int he formula: "what brings profit is rational." Economism is a business ethics conception, a justification theory for profit maximization that declares ethics superfluous. Ultimately this is an "ethic" without morality.
Economics is Onesided and Reactionary (tags)
The homo oeconomicus cannot be our hope and is not desirable or future-friendly. The economic benefits to the capitalist entrepreneur are in contradiction to nature and to the person..We face completely oversized financial markets that have uncoupled from the real economy creating value.
Capitalism and Its Crisis Proclivity (tags)
The liberal economists of the 19th century claimed no crises could occur in capitalism since every supply creates its demand. On the other hand, Marx and Engels recognized early on the causes for crises in capitalism. The contradictions of the accumulation process lead to crises.
The poorest and weakest persons must pay the price for misguided political decisions. Political-economic decisions decide over the life and death of persons. The New Deal stands for an effective debt reduction. Germany has been an active driver of austerity.
Bombs Away: Official US Policy (tags)
anti-war
How Neoliberalism Gained Hegemony (tags)
The pressing question is why do the masses vote against their own interests and applaud those who champion goals opposed to their well-being or welfare? Ideas prevail because power is on their side, not because they are better. Neoliberalism went from sect to cultural hegemony
TISA: Everything Will Be Marketed (tags)
A new agreement (TISA, Trade in Services Agreement) could privatize drinking water and health care through the back door. The resistance by many non-governmental organizations to the free trade agreement TTIP seems to pick up speed
The wealth of others has become more a problem and less an incentive. Capital is blind, Thomas Piketty says. Capital grows faster than the economy. Differences in wealth are inherent in capitalism but do not represent a natural law. A society can accept them or act against them.
The "Great Transformation" of the 21st Century (tags)
An end of the Great Crisis is not insight at the beginning of the 21st century... The regime of finance-market driven accumulation has not brought forth any new formation of capitalism capable of development.
Video: Why Capitalism is Killing the Planet, 27 min (tags)
Market anarchy as promoted by Adam Smith is different than prioritzing human needs. We must put the brakes on industrial growth. Equivalent jobs must be provided for closed industries.
The new indebtedness is a consequence of the crisis caused by the financial industry-and in no way owed to an excessive social state, demographic change and so forth.. There are many critics of this policy of mastering crisis by flooding the financial markets with fresh money.
Casino Capitalism and Profit Maximization (tags)
“The state is consciously weakened to speed up the redistribution from bottom to top because that corresponds to the dogmas of the neoliberal ideology.” Our state was systematically weakened in the last 15 years by extensive tax cuts. I remember the lowering of the top income tax rate.
The Tiger and His Trainers (tags)
How preposterous to think we can avert the next crisis without regulating or shriveling the financial sector, addressing income inequality and radically rethinking the meaning and assumptions of economics? Hans-Jurgen Urban likens the financial crisis to a tiger breaking from his cage and sees the welfare state and unions as trainers
Book Review: "The Victory of Capital" (tags)
A society can only provide for the future by investing today in the production of tomorrow...What may be sensible economically for a private individual or individual business could be harmful for the national economy, particularly when the economy staggers.
Criticism of Market Theory and Market Ideology (tags)
Market fundamentalists cling to the myths of the self-healing market and corporate beneficence..The real market economy functions very differently than the fantastic notions of the theoretical market economy. Maximum individual profit does not agree with social welfare.
The humanity of resistance can’t be erased by a Pinochet or a Friedman (tags)
The Pinochet coup was the first application of “shock therapy.” The intellectual author of shock therapy, Milton Friedman, needed a dictator and unlimited violence to implement his ideas.
Ten Theses on the Crisis and its Solution (tags)
Problems don't disappear when they are ignored. Deregulation is a collective and political crisis. Language and democracy are endangered when arsonists are called firefighters, when private losses become public losses and crime in the suits is normalized as a business model.
Labor Solidarity in Neoliberal Structural Change (tags)
The self-regulating market and the invisible hand were neoliberal theories of Frederick August von Hayek and Milton Friedman. Submission to the market was described as a natural law, as natural and self-evident as the rotation of the planets. Solidarity and unions were decried as barriers.
How Does Justice Come to the Economy? (tags)
Mirror images and ideological straitjackets on the path from Solidarity to sellout (tags)
A particularly harsh brand of capitalism was instituted via shock therapy in Poland, against the repeatedly expressed will of Poles. Unemployment, severe wage cuts and a growth in poverty were the results, just as with today’s austerity programs.
Newspeak Rules: How Neoliberalism Explains the World (tags)
Originally positive terms were devalued in the last decades (social state became "welfare dictatorship") Social dislocations are charged to the impacted themselves. The scandal of poverty mutates to the scandal of the poor themselves.
Opinion: Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income (tags)
author: Karl Widerquist e-mail:e-mail: marc1seed@yahoo.com A free Internet book "Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work" (October 2012) is available from UNESCO.org. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002180/218003e.pdf
banking
Ryan, Akin: Two More Reasons to Vote for Obama (tags)
On the eve of the Republican National Convention, two stories — Mitt Romney's choice of arch-conservative Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan as his running mate and Missouri Congressmember and Senate candidate Todd Akin's comment that women almost never get pregnant from "legitimate rape" — highlighted the vast differences between the two major parties. No progressive can possibly still believe that it makes no difference whether the Republicans or the Democrats win this year's election in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the Republicans plan (and, if they win, will enact) a sweeping change in U.S. government that will eliminate ALL business regulation, environmental protection and civil rights for women, people of color and Queers.
Out of the Slump: The Only Road (tags)
A real analysis of the United State’s economic history is rarely discussed by politicians or media alike, since the conclusions that would be inevitably drawn would be out of step with what politicians are currently advocating.
America's Left and Romney's Economic Agenda (tags)
Axel-Fair Schulz is a professor of political science at the State University of New York, Potsdam.
"A seeming consensus among economists can virtually force the shaping of political opinions.. For 30 years, neoliberalism marginalized all other schools, above all Keynesianism - and all of us hit a brick wall.."
Economist criticizes "pathological allegience" to economic models (tags)
The crisis was born when Maggie Thatcher and then Bill Clinton deregulated the financial markets. The explosive force that was detonated was incalculable. Economics gave support because it provides models.
Shock Strategy for Europe (tags)
The cocktail of social cuts, deregulation and privatization struck societies like a blow. The economy hit the wall; social securities were taken away. The debt problems were used as "timely opportunities" to gain new ground for the free market.
Why the Establishment is Terrified of Ron Paul (tags)
It’s fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, now that according to some mainstream polls he has become the front-running candidate in the Jan. 3 GOP caucus race in Iowa, and perhaps also in the first primary campaign in New Hampshire.
The Worthless Value System of the Financial Branch (tags)
The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman wrote: "In a free economic system, there is only a single responsibility for the actors. Businesses must be carried out for the greatest possible profitability." To believers in the self-healing market, questions about guilt, humility and pangs of conscience must sound like questions from another world.
Fighting for the Soul of the American Dream (tags)
class war
anti-war
Before we can determine if America has succumbed to fascism, we first must have a good definition and understanding of what fascism really is
J'accuse! The Betrayal of WBAI (PACIFICA RADIO) (tags)
After more than 20 years, WBAI has cancelled the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade. Producer Bill Weinberg examines the politics of this move, and demonstrates how it is an illegitimate act of political retribution. (Tony Bates-former KPFK volunteer coordinator has been for over 2 years interim program director at WBAI).
Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform (tags)
The plutocrat and corporately funded DFER has turned "Manufacturing Consent" into an art form. Here we look at how they subverted an entire state legislature to pass one of the most reactionary and backwards education laws in the country, assuring Colorado's quick march towards school privatization and the commoditization of teachers.
The World Social Forum (Feb 6-11, 2011) (tags)
"Another world is possible," Susan George declared at Porto Alegre. 80,000 activists came to Dakar. The world has changed, not only through the financial crisis that showed the market often causes more problems than it solves. The WSF has become a source of hope for a just world.
Waging War on Working Americans (tags)
labor struggles
Ben Austin channels Sarah Palin substituting his Triggers for her Targets (tags)
Highly paid school privatization advocate Ben Austin has been lashing out publicly with ever more vitriol since he ignominiously lost his seat on the California State Board of Education and his supposed moment of triumph in Compton, chronicled in Jill Stewart's trashy masseuse and porn ad pennysaver was been mired in controversy and very real accusations of malfeasance.
Chavez Given Enabling Law Power (tags)
legal in Venezuela
Ruling on Behalf of Wall Street's "Super Rich": The Financial End Time has Arrived (tags)
"Alas, the Obama administration has backed the Geithner-Bernanke policy that “the economy” cannot recover without saving the debt overhead. The reality is that it is the debt overhead that is destroying the economy. So we are dealing with the irreconcilable fact that the Obama position threatens to lower living standards from 10% to 20% over the coming few years – making the United States look more like Greece, Ireland and Latvia than what was promised in the last presidential election. Something has to give politically if the economy is to change course. More to the point, what has to give is favoritism for Wall Street at the expense of the economy at large. What has made the U.S. economy uncompetitive is primarily the degree to which debt service has been built into the cost of living and doing business. Post-classical “junk economics” treats interest and fees as payment for the “service” for providing credit. But interest (like economic rent and monopoly price extraction) is a transfer payment to bankers with the privilege of credit creation. The beneficiaries of providing tax favoritism for debt are the super-rich at the top of the economic pyramid – the 2% whom Mr. Obama’s tax giveaway will benefit by over $700 billion. If the present direction of tax “reform” is not reversed, Mr. Obama will shed crocodile tears for the middle class as he sponsors the Deficit Reduction Commission’s program of cutting back Social Security and revenue sharing to save states and cities from defaulting on their pensions. One third of U.S. real estate already is reported to have sunk into negative equity, squeezing state and local tax collection, forcing a choice to be made between bankruptcy, debt default, or shifting the losses onto the shoulders of labor, off those of the wealthy creditor layer of the economy responsible for loading it down with debt."
The Financial Crisis and the Failure of the Modern Economy (tags)
The US government debt shot up from 2.9% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2008 and 11.9% in 2009. At the summits of Washington, London and Pittsburg, the goat was made the gardener. Ineffective rules were resolved that hardly helped regulate the financial markets.
PLAN SANTA BARBARA: Is It Really Adapting In Today’s Fast Changing Environment? (tags)
Some Thoughts Regarding Item 8. For Agenda of August 10, 2010
The Rebirth of Economic Thought from the Ashes of the Crisis (tags)
Reagan announced the state was "the problem" for the functioning of the economy. State action could not solve economic problems. The latest reality of economic crisis thoroughly destroyed the neoclassical theses. The crisis showed its ideological limitation and conditionality.
Vancouver Libertarian Paul Geddes brings CIA racist stock money launderers to Canada (tags)
Aren't you as a Canadian capable of creating your own political party that at least has no ties to stock fraud,money laundering gold and mortgage scams of the U.S.Libertarian Party and Republican 'libertarian-in-chief' Ron Paul with his criminal ties to James Dale Davidson's,Lord William Rees-Mogg's and ex CIA 'economist' Mark Skousen's Agora Inc crime family ?!
Capitalism and Democracy (tags)
Citizens are protected from incursions of the state and on the other side must accept the sovereignty of the state and the general law as prerequisites of property and security. Whoever has visions should be the physician. A good physician will urge changing one's way of life.
The "Houdini Recovery" under IMF-Type Austerity (tags)
the recovery is the big lie
Disaster Capitalism Headed to Haiti (tags)
worker exploitation follows disaster
GERMANY: What Lessons Do We Learn from the Financial Crisis? (tags)
Rating agencies were paid by the firms to be rated. Ultimately rational individual conduct led to an irrational collective result. The lesson is clear. On the way of regulation or taxation, banks must be given a massive incentive to remain small.
Risk Development and Dollar Inflation (tags)
Two articles by emeritus professor Elmar Altvater reveal the contradictions of credit or bubble prosperity in the counter-revolution of capital. As work cannot define us, competitiveness and profit maximization do not define the human experience Speculation could bring a new feudalism..
Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance" (tags)
must-read on US imperial aims
VIDEO: Schwarzenegger's Shock Therapy - Poor Pay For Sins Of The Rich (tags)
Now that Washington has ruled out an immediate bailout for California, we know who will pay the ultimate price for the crisis born on Wall Street: the state's most vulnerable citizens. And with many states facing similar crises, this could be a preview of where the country as a whole is headed.
Post-neoliberalism or post-capitalism? (tags)
"Market-liberalisation was accompanied by a far-reaching de-regulation of politics. Milton Friedman called it a “neo-liberal counterrevolution” against Keynesianism..."
Reviewing Ellen Brown's "Web of Debt:" Part II (tags)
Part II of Brown's superb book.
Lessons from the Great Depression: Christina D. Romer (tags)
This paper was presented at the Brookings Institution Washington D.C. March 9, 2009. Christina Romer, economics professor at Berkeley, is one of President Obama's economic advisers in the Council of Economic Advisers.
"Down the Memory Hole," Alan Greenspan Style (tags)
Greenspan-caused housing bubble
Ronald Reagan: Betrayer of Main Street America! (tags)
William Kleinknecht takes the gloves off in his new book,”The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America.” He shows that the so-called “great communicator,” was, in fact, the “great enabler of corporate greed.” The Vulture Capitalists were set loose on the people by “Reaganism.” I say: Take Reagan’s name off that airport in D.C. Let his Fat Cat cronies pay for his memorials, not the taxpayers.
The Dark Night or NeoCon Artist: (tags)
One wonders why so many in the media and film industry are in such frenzy over Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Night”? Granted the movie is good, and in some ways great, but still the plot is really no more ingenious that what passes for standard fare on Law and Order. So why is it that the Powers-that-Be is such a tizzy? No doubt a fair share has to do with it portending to hold a mirror up to post-9/11 society—with a major theme of how terror can corrupt those that fear and fight terrorism.
The Dark Night or NeoCon Artist: (tags)
One wonders why so many in the media and film industry are in such frenzy over Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Night”? Granted the movie is good, and in some ways great, but still the plot is really no more ingenious that what passes for standard fare on Law and Order. So why is it that the Powers-that-Be is such a tizzy? No doubt a fair share has to do with it portending to hold a mirror up to post-9/11 society—with a major theme of how terror can corrupt those that fear and fight terrorism.
Prensa paraguaya niega derecho a Réplica al escritor Luis Agüero Wagner (tags)
La prensa mediática que apoyó -aceitada por los dólares de las ONGs derechistas y fundaciones anexas a la embajada norteamericana- la candidatura del obispo Fernando Lugo, tras lanzar dardos contra el escritor Luis Agüero Wagner le niega derecho a réplica.
Excess Debt and Deflation = Depression (tags)
the worsening economy
Chicago Boys' Curse Comes Home to Wall Street (tags)
The famous school of economics at the University of Chicago led by the late Milton Friedman spread its market fundamentalism worldwide. Greed, selfishness, individualism and short-termism were conflated with freedom and democracy and elevated to the status of moral philosophy.
Bankruptcy of the Last Utopia (tags)
The economy should be a part of life, not a steamroller crushing creativity and self-realization. The economy should serve humankind; humanity should not serve bankers, SUVs and sports stadiums. The same Chinese letter represents crisis & opportunity.Will future be more human?
Fannie Mae Lie:SEC Chris Cox,Agora Inc.,James Dale Davidson, Lord Rees Mogg,LOM Bermuda (tags)
Now why does Chris Cox and his SEC (U.S.Securities Exchange Commission)allow Scott Lines and his LOM(Lines Overseas Management) of Bermuda Bahamas Isle of Man,etc.whose massive U.S. penny stock frauds and manipulations in collusion with disgraced Florida Democrat Rep.Tim Mahoney's vFinance and Charles Schwab has been covered up by the SEC itself to buy and sell Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac,etc. shares ? And how can anyone know just how many they really buy and sell or short,(dump),over time ? Could these types of offshore hedge fund and securities fraudsters be what caused the collapse of Fannie Mae shares and NOT the lie Chrisopher Cox about 'naked shorting' Cox has sold to the public ?
Assassinations, Wars and Meltdowns: Who Benefits? (tags)
America has been subjected to the some severe shock therapy over the years. JFK, MLK, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were all murdered! Then, there was the Vietnam War (1963-75); the “Watergate” scandal; and the horrors of the 9/11 tragedy; followed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The latest hit is the Wall Street bailout, to wit: the economic and fiscal meltdowns. They all spell out the sharp decline of America. Is it by accident or by plan?
The government-business looting of America.
Bail-Out, Economic Democracy and the Socialist Path (tags)
David Schweickart, political philosopher, discusses the financial crisis, what it exposes about capitalism, how it can set the stage for economic democracy, and open the socialist path.
El Obispo menemizado y el Rally del Chaco (tags)
Una gran polémica se ha suscitado en Paraguay en torno a la realización del Rally del Chaco, cuya suspensión recomiendan algunos por seguías y situación de emergencia. Curiosamente, el clérigo-presidente Fernando Lugo aconseja que el evento se realice a pesar de todo.
Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge - Part II" (tags)
a stinging indictment of US imperialism
World Bank and IMF Policies Caused Food Crisis (tags)
The IMF changed its economic direction and took a market radical neoliberal economic course at the beginning of the 1980s with the rise of monetarism. Hunger inthe world can only be overcome with long-term sustainable strategies, not with the short-term horizon of Wall Street.
Destroying Public Education in America (tags)
Privatizations schemes to destroy public education.
Alan Greenspan at the Feds: A Disaster for America (tags)
The supposed financial guru, Alan Greenspan, was nominated to head the Federal Reserve, in 1987, by that union-bashing dunce, President Ronald Reagan. At his confirmation hearing, the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI), exposed the fact that Greenspan’s economic forecasting record was “dismal” and “wrong” most of the time. In his book: “Greenspan’s Bubbles,” William A. Fleckenstein proves Sen. Proxmire’s instincts were prophetic.
Neocon Jonah Goldberg Praises David Mamet (tags)
How would you feel if that raving Neocon Jonah Goldberg praised you? Well, this is the position that lapsed liberal David Mamet, a knee jerk supporter of Israel, is in. Mamet endorsed a “Free Market” system and bashed NPR, as “National Palestinian Radio.” In a rant for the Village Voice he explains his conversion to Conservatism and underscores how government should “get out of the way.” Goldberg lionized him for rejecting “the pieties of the Left.”
Oh, That Trillion Dollar Financial Bubble, It’s Leaking! (tags)
It’s here! Author Charles R. Morris calls it: “The greatest credit bubble in history!” He insists that the “writedowns and defaults” of credit devices will “come out about $1 trillion.” Problem: President George W. Bush, Jr. is in denial about the crisis. Like that amiable dunce, President Ronald Reagan, he contributed to this horrible mess by turning the country over to the Vulture Capitalists and also by launching the Iraq War with its price tag of $3 trillion!
The Republican Candidate (4 and 5) (tags)
If this is a subject of interest to you, in the United States today there are five Cuban prisoners, separated one from the other by thousands of miles. They have no area that can be sarcastically called the “Hanoi Hilton”. Their suffering and the injustice of which they are victims will be known the world over; don't doubt it for a minute
F. William Engdahl's "A Century of War" - Part II (tags)
Part II of this epic book.
Baterías RECORD y el CAFTA. (tags)
En el 2004 y dada la coyuntura de negociación del Tratado de Libre Comercio de Estados Unidos con CA y RD, conocido como CAFTA-RD, la Alianza Social Continental, la Alianza por el Comercio Responsable y el Bloque Popular Centroamericano publicaron su análisis crítico del documento oficial del TLC. Este documento se titulo “Por qué decimos NO” (http://www.citizen.org/documents/TLCEUCAanalisis.pdf)
A Will for Change: New Economic Thinking (tags)
Since economic thinking shapes the world, we can't leave economists alone to putter with their theories. Too many of them hung up their thinking caps the moment they got their degrees, and stopped looking out the window.
Vivisection of Neoliberalism (tags)
"Therer is no such thing as society," said Margaret Thatcher. "The neoliberal understanding of democracy is marked by skepticism and open hostility." (Ptak) That market pressures are often more severe and oppressive is repressedf as long as possible.
On the Anti-Democratic Character of Neoliberalism (tags)
Privatization, deregulation and cuts in social spending is the trinity of the free market, Naomi Klein explains. The consciou8s production of unemployment is anti-democratic. The conscious worsening of income- and assets distribution is anti-democratic.
Film Night at Flor y Canto: March 2003-September 2005 (Part 2 of 2) (tags)
To mark the five-year anniversary of the Eagle Rock Peace Vigil, here is a list of films shown at Flor y Canto over a two-and-a-half year period. These almost-weekly screenings were an outgrowth of the Eagle Rock Vigil. (Links to the rest of this list can be found below in "comments.")
"Capitalism and Freedom" Unmasked (tags)
The dark side of Milton Friedman's economics.
Reviewing Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" (tags)
The human wreckage of disaster capitalism.
Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" and the policy of Disaster Capitalism (tags)
"Shock and Awe" is what the media and pentagon called the bombardment of Baghdad by U.S. forces at the start of the 2003 Persian Gulf War. We remember the horrible visuals well, just as we remember, in graphic detail, our own shock and awe event on September 11, 2001, when we were treated to the first in a series of psychological trauma for the new the "War on Terror" PR campaign. All of these horrible events were designed to turn us, and Iraqis, into pliable infants, willing to let our government do whatever they want in order to "protect us."
Market Efficiency Hokum (tags)
Debunking the myth that free markets work best.
Competition and the Legal System (tags)
Competition is not always a fountain of economic development..Certain academic findings are dangerous for the functioning of norm systems. The critic becomes the delinquent. Several wicked mosquitos may be criticized, not mosquitos in general.
The Underrated Power of Economists (tags)
During the Great Depression between the two world wars, the Brit John Maynard Keynes came to an insight that was implemented in the 1960s. The state must guide the economy by its spending to avert the danger of depression.
The big brother from the North misled the South.. The slogan "More Market, Less State" is losing a few old friends in Europe.. What is changing is the discourse, the eulogy of the market and its possibilities.
Who Frees Us From Capital? (tags)
Whole continents bowed to the Washington Consensus..The World Bank must end its embittered attack on distribution policy.. Privatization awakened false hopes.. Evo Morales in Bolivia nationalized the oil and gas economy and raised the monthly minimum wage to $100.
Book review of Benjamin Barber's "Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole"
Basic Income: Freedom for Every Individual (tags)
Katya Kipping rightly characterizes basic income as a democracy package. Solving a material question and strengthening civil rights and personal autonomy are joined.
Ceci n'est pas une pipe
Chinese multinationals and globalization: insights on global business and politics (tags)
gain insights on China and globalization
"Unemployment is a Victory" (tags)
Higher productivity allows a maximum in prosperity to be realized with a minimum in human labor. Freedom, not full employment, is the alternative today.
Hiding in the bush
Monthly Pay for Everyone (tags)
A basic income means an income-securing existence allowing participation in social life. The basic income would do away with work coercion and tests of neediness.
Pinochet is dead! It is time to kill the system that spawned him! (tags)
The fact that the death of Pinochet on Sunday sparked off celebrations in Chile and around the world should surprise no one. He was a hated figure, a living symbol of the real face of the bourgeoisie. In "normal" times the capitalists prefer to govern through "democratic" parliamentary means, so long as their fundamental interests are guaranteed. But the capitalist system cannot always guarantee that its interests can be defended through parliamentary means. History is full of examples where the bourgeoisie has preferred to do away with the niceties of "democracy"... Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto... the list is endless.
Economist Milton Friedman dies at 94 (tags)
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who advocated an unfettered free market and had the ear of three U.S. presidents, died Thursday at age 94.
DIRTY SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE (tags)
HOW THE US FEDERAL RESERVE HAS ABUSED THE PUBLIC SINCE INCEPTION
DIRTY SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE (tags)
AN ACCOUNT OF HOW THE US FEDERAL RESERVE HAS ABUSED THE PUBLIC SINCE INCEPTION
Comments on Greg Palast's New Book Armed Madhouse (tags)
PALAST EXPOSES US ELECTION FRAUD, CRIMES AGAINST IRAQ AND LOTS MORE
HOSTILE TAKEOVER - THE CORPORATE CONTROL OF SOCIETY AND HUMAN LIFE (tags)
HOW PREDATORY GIANT CORPORATIONS DESTROY SOCIETY AND PEOPLE
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA - IT'S SPELLED C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N (tags)
US past and present policy using a broader definition of corruption
Can the State Save Us from Work? (tags)
Whenever more profits are produced with fewer and fewer workers, income should be separated from work. Every citizen should automatically receive a part of the money cake to buy goods produced without his help and find his or her own fujlfillment.
Is NSA Spying a Case of China Business Blowback? (tags)
Capitalism isn’t bringing freedom to China, but it does seem to be bringing totalitarian control systems back from China to the U.S. courtesy of American business.
Oil Price-Fixing (Gasp)? Of Course There's Oil Price-Fixing! (tags)
Tidy concepts like competition and free markets don’t apply in this industry, where the executives of each company know everything about the “competition” without even asking, and where the government is happy to let them suck the profits out of the public’s pockets like crude from a gusher.
Disinformation as a Strategy of Power (tags)
"What caused this development? How could an economic system be built where ever-larger parts of the population are excluded from sharing in growth? ..In neoliberalism, the person is not regarded as a person but downgraded to mere labor power.."
Basic Income as a Democratic Civil Right (tags)
The ecnomic conditions in which the utopia of Aristotle or John M Keynes could become a real utopia objectively exist. We live under our real economic possibilities.The end of the work society is not the end of work but the transition to a really free society of citizens.
The market assumes control more and more while social policy is driven down with the argument of "personal responsibility." Growing impoverishment and social exclusion of ever-larger groups are the inexorable consequences.
Industry without Happiness: On the Guaranteed Minimum Income (tags)
A basic income could heal our fragmented society caught in work fanaticism and work fetishism while work disappears..A basic income could change social attitudes and goals and give real meaning to the human rights to life and participation.
Every search for alternatives must question the "great narratives" of the free market, efficiency, competition and entrepreneurship. Economic laws could be analyzed as social constructions and economic models as social models.
Paid Work and Basic Income (tags)
The goal of basic income advocates is to neutralize capitalism in one of its central premises: the generalziation of paid labor as the only or at least dominant path of securing existence. The future would be brighter if this were on the agenda.
George W. Bush, The Neocons, & The Nazis: Ties That Bind (tags)
There are numerous connections between the Bush family and the Nazis. Moreover, the philosophy of the neocons within the Bush administration has already been connected with fascism. However, no article has attempted to present an overview of the fascist connections within the Bush administration.
Perhaps if the world's Muslims could invest more in normal education and less in blaming The Jews for all their problems, we could all live in a better world.
Corporation as Psychopath (tags)
Management guru, Peter Drucker: "If you find an executive who wants to take on social responsibilities, fire him. Fast." chair of the libertarian Cato Institute, William Niskanen: says that he would not invest in a company that pioneered in corporate responsibility.
Neoliberalism: Definitional Problems (tags)
"Neoliberalism starts from a negative.. assumption that every person prefers him- or herself or circle. Therefore corruption is inevi-table. This development can only be prevented by reduction of the public sector and the absolute self-control of the market."
8 Simple Rules for Schwarzenegger to follow, or else get 'Clubbed' (tags)
A driving force behind the Conservative storm front in America will quite likely be the Governor\'s mentor -- and in the course, steer the socially-liberal Arnold toward a starkly Conservative agenda.
Attack of the Dean-Leaners (tags)
"At some point, no one can say precisely when, libertarians apparently swore a feudal oath of fealty to the Republican Party... with this alliance (such as it is) we hold our noses and vote for Republican in close presidential elections, while they pay lip service to limited government."
My First Day at UCLA, USSR (tags)
MIT professor Noam Chomsky (a rabidly anti-American leftist) had more books at the UCLA Store than did Aristotle, John Locke, Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden ... if not for the fading scent of liberty, I might as well have been at the University of Havana.
SMOG: Can you breathe free in a free maket? (tags)
When asked about smog in the LA basin, Nobel Prize Economist and Libertarian Milton Friedman claimed that; "the smog went back 200 years. There are stories of the Indians describing that as a smoggy area"
GOP = Goldwater's Old Party? (tags)
Antiwar libertarian bloggers and Internet columnists often link to left-of-center websites like Indymedia, Common Dreams, Alternet.org and CounterPunch while others consider voting for Democratic candidate Howard Dean.
Free-Market Conservatives push anti-tax agenda at almost any cost (tags)
Stephen Moore, board member of American Conservative Union (ACU), was the former director of fiscal policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He now runs "The Club for Growth," which backs candidates that are friendly to big business.
U.S. is 3rd on World's "Economic Freedom" Index (tags)
Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States rank first, second and third, respectively, in the latest edition of the 'Economic Freedom of the World' annual report by the Cato Institute and more than 50 other libertarian think tanks around the world.
Latin America fights neolibralism (tags)
Despite the murderous repression that the Pinochet regime was known for, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in mass demonstrations. With the economy collapsing, the fascist government was forced to rehire public sector workers and reinstitute many of the laws and programs in place before the coup.
Neo-liberalism (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff.
A War in the Planning for Four Years (tags)
Zbigniew Brzezinski and the CFR Put War Plans In a 1997 Book - It Is "A Blueprint for World Dictatorship," Says a Former German Defense and NATO Official Who Warned of Global Domination in 1984, in an Exclusive Interview With FTW
The Will to Paralysis: The Crisis of Shareholder Capitalism (tags)
Scapegoats or black sheep are used to evade the crisis of the system. Considering matters more exactly would be very appropriate. Are manifestations of corruption and tax evasion normal side-effects of a system fixated on money?
America-Slavery's Still in Effect (tags)
The WTO is set to begin its meeting Friday, November 9. The IMF/World Bank will follow in Ottawa on the 16th. These institutions are on the front lines to further America's agenda of commodifying the entire world's population, along with everything else, living and non-living. We must stop Uncle Sam, the ultimate terrorist, in his tracks.
Austria: a year after the FPO crept to power, who benefitted ? (tags)
In Austria, the regime of Haider's laughably named "Freedom" party may serve as an example of what to expect from a corporate state.